0000000000238640
AUTHOR
Fiore V.
Flax–Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites Exposed to a Salt-Fog/Dry Cycle: A Simplified Approach to Predict Their Performance Recovery
Despite natural fibers gaining significant attention in recent decades, their limited performance and poor durability under humid environments cannot allow them to fully replace their synthetic counterparts as reinforcement for structural composites. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate how exposure to a humid/dry cycle affects the mechanical response of epoxy laminates reinforced with flax and glass fibers. In particular, the main goal is to assess the performance evolution of a glass–flax hybridized stacking sequence in comparison with the full glass and flax fiber reinforced composites. To this end, the investigated composites were first exposed to salt-fog for 15 or 30 days…
LEMONGRASS PLANT LEAF AND CULM AS POTENTIAL SOURCES OF REINFORCEMENT FOR BIO-COMPOSITES
A possible source of natural reinforcement for bio-composites can be represented by lemongrass plant (Cymbopogon flexuosus), a clumped and perennial grass which belongs to the Poaceae family. This plant is extensively used for several applications such as pharmacology, food preservation and cosmetics but, to the best of our knowledge, few papers were published on its use as source for reinforcement of composites and no one article was focused on the comparison between lemongrass leaves and culms as potential source of natural reinforcement. To this aim, a preliminary investigation on leaf and culm fibers was carried out to compare their physical and chemical features as well as their tensil…
Effect of the UV exposure on the creep behaviour of PLA based green composites
Green composites made of biodegradable matrices and lignocellulosic fibers are receiving growing attention from both academia and industries. Despite a wide literature can be found about mechanical behavior of such kind of composites, at the best of our knowledge, only limited information is available about their creep behavior [1] and no papers have been yet done on the effect of ultraviolet exposition. The tensile creep behavior at 40 °C of PLA based composites, containing flax and jute twill weave woven fabrics, produced through compression molding, was investigated. As preliminary characterization, quasi-static tensile tests were carried out on virgin and UV aged composites
Vaccination coverage in healthcare workers: a multicenter cross-sectional study in Italy
Introduction In recent years, a phenomenon known as "vaccine hesitancy" has spread throughout the world, even among health workers, determining a reduction in vaccination coverage (VC). A study aimed at evaluating VC among healthcare workers (HCWs) in 10 Italian cities (L'Aquila, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Sassari, Catanzaro, Ferrara, Catania, Naples, Messina) was performed. Materials and methods Annex 3 of the Presidential Decree n. 445 of 28 December 2000 was used to collect information on the vaccination status of HCWs. The mean and standard deviation (SD) were calculated with regard to the quantitative variable (age), while absolute and relative frequencies were obtained for categorical dat…